The Silver Chair is the start of a new Narnia Trilogy

Director Joe Johnston has said that the new Narnia film, The Silver Chair is the start of a new Narnia film trilogy.

“Everything is new,” he says. “This is the beginning of a brand-new trilogy. We will make reference to characters and events in the other films as the book does, but think of this as the beginning of an all-new trilogy.”

What does this mean?

The film is going to “look different” from the other three films. He has a production designer that is starting soon, but he can’t said the name of the designer because they haven’t signed him yet.

He wants the film to remain true to the essence of C.S. Lewis’ source material. He said it’s a little bit of a daunting task, but is ready for it. He is hoping to hire the best in the world to help in it.

Aslan will play as prominent a part in this film as he does in the book.

“I’m going to stick as close to the book as I can and make the most commercial version as I can.”

“The Lady of the Green Kirtle is the villain of The Silver Chair.”

The cast will be entirely new. The cast from the original films have aged out of the ability to play the roles they played in the first Narnia trilogy. He wants to set the new trilogy apart from the original trilogy, so it’ll be an entirely new cast. He feels it wouldn’t be appropriate to use any of the original cast members. For instance: Will Poulter did a fine job as Eustace, but he’s much too old to continue the role now. (I can confirm that first hand, when I met him when they filmed the movie, and then again a year later when the movie was released, he was already a foot taller than when they were filming.)

He answered the question of who should play Puddleglum in the movie, and he wouldn’t give who he would pick today, but if he had a choice of anyone at any time, it would have been John Cleese at age 25.

He plans to shoot most of the film on location and use digital effects to enhance the landscape. Probably in New Zealand on the south island.

He feels that all of the tools to make a movie, that are cost effective, to tell the best story are going to be used.

His first C.S. Lewis books that he read were the Space Trilogy and Till We Have Faces, at about 12 or 13 years of age.

The Silver Chair, he reiterates, will be true to the essence of what C.S. Lewis wrote, and will have a lot of heart as well.

To him, the film is “about hope, it’s about working together and recognizing how you can share responsibility with others and can work together. It’s about standing up to tyranny, whether you call it a bully or however you want to phrase it. It is about knowing who you are and finding out who you are and recognizing who you are.”

Another question said “Please don’t let this one suck.” He said “Okay. I won’t let it suck.”

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Since the announcement that Narnia 4 was coming, and is The Chronicles of Narnia: The Silver Chair, we’ve been monitoring reaction around the internet. For the most part, it seems there is excitement about it […]

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4 Comments

“Trilogy”? Silver Chair is followed by Last Battle, but what’s the third in the trilogy? Magician’s Nephew or Horse and his Boy? If it’s a trilogy does that imply they’re not planning to do both?
Still, it’s good to be hearing some stories about Silver Chair moving along.

Since the films have been being released in publication order, not the so-called chronological order of the modern numbering system, the next one would be The Horse and His Boy, not The Last Battle. (MN is number 6 in production order.)
My feeling, although I have not proof of this, is Johnston uses the word “trilogy” to indicate this film, and any movie(s) that might follow, begin a different series from the first three. He is trying to find a better way to describe it than just saying it’s a “new franchise.” At least that’s what I think he’s trying to convey, more than telling us how many movies there will be.

Delighted that the Silver Chair will be made at last, my favourite Narnia book, but the director didn’t really give much away did he? Maybe the Last Battle will be split into two films as the Hobbit was split? Although I’d love to see either of the other two, they don’t really follow on from the Silver Chair. Looking forward to seeing the film!

Probably, the last one will be in two parts, thus 4 total. Also, I really don’t like the “new age”, “tyranny/terrorism” “find yourself” etc etc. talk about what HE sees. Makes me think it will have the modern flair of today’s problems in the world. Just what we NOT want to go see in a NARNIA film. I hope it goes better than this statement. Oh, John Cleese? I loved him in “A Fish Called Wanda”!